Mitchell E. Garner
megarner@afwlaw.com

Education

Mitchell Garner graduated cum laude from Yale University in 1971 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree. He majored in economics. During his junior year, he studied political science, economics, and history at the Institute of Political Studies at the University of Paris in Paris, France, from which he received a Certificate of Political Studies with Honors in June 1970. At Yale, he was in many student activities. He was a member of the Yale Political Union and the Yale Glee Club. He also participated in varsity athletics.  He was a member of the Yale Freshman Baseball Team (infielder) in 1968 and Yale Heavyweight Crew (coxswain) in 1971.

In 1975, he received his Juris Doctor from Loyola University of Chicago School of Law.  He was a member of the Loyola University of Chicago Law Journal, and served as Associate Editor of the Law Journal in his third year.

Work Experience
Following his college graduation, Mitch worked on the United States Senate campaign staff of his Congressman in Chicago, Roman C. Pucinski, as the director of research.  From 1975 to 1976, Mitch was a law clerk to Justice Francis S. Lorenz of the Illinois Appellate Court, First Judicial District. From 1976 to January 1983, he served as an Assistant State’s Attorney for the Cook County State’s Office in Chicago, Illinois, where he was assigned to the special prosecutions unit and later the felony criminal division.  As a prosecutor, he tried numerous bench and jury trials. From 1983 to 1989, he was an associate and later a partner in the law firm of Spindell, Kemp & Kimball in Chicago, Illinois, where he practiced primarily in the area of employee benefits. From 1989 to 1990, he was an attorney with the law firm of Keck, Mahin & Cate in Chicago, Illinois, where he practiced in the area of employee benefits. From 1990 to 1993, he was in-house legal counsel for Hewitt Associates in Lincolnshire, Illinois, where he worked as a legal consultant on miscellaneous employee benefits matters. From 1993 to 2003, he was an attorney with the law firm of Stevenson Keppelman Associates in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he worked primarily in the area of employee benefits. He joined Allotta, Farley & Widman Co., LPA in February 2003.

Areas of Practice
Employee Benefits involving multiemployer and single employer plans, including qualified retirement plans, 403(b) annuity programs, cafeteria plans, and miscellaneous welfare plans. Mitch’s experience includes counseling trustees and plan administrators, drafting and amending plans and summary plan descriptions, preparing administrative forms and applications for governmental rulings, obtaining favorable determinations and remedial rulings from the Internal Revenue Service on qualified retirement plans, audits by the Internal Revenue Service and the United States Department of Labor, and early retirement windows.

Bar Admissions
Supreme Court of Illinois, 1975

Supreme Court of Michigan, 1993

Supreme Court of Ohio, 2004

United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois, 1975

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit, 1975

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit, 1994

United States District Court, Northern District of Ohio, 2003

United States Supreme Court, 1982

Legal Publications
Note, The New Illinois Death Penalty:  Double Constitutional Trouble, 5 Loyola of Chicago Law Journal 351 (1974).

Garner, Our Linguistic Tower of Babel, Chicago Tribune, March 6, 1973, §1, at 14.

Writer and Editor for Tax Newsletter, Inc., Chicago, Illinois, from 1986 to 1991.

Activities, Honors & Professional Associations
Ann Arbor Track Club, Vice President and Member of Executive Committee and Board of Directors
– 2004 to Present

Yale Club of Michigan, Member of Board of Directors and Delegate to Association of Yale Alumni
– 2001 to 2004

Yale University Office of Development, Class Agent for Class of 1971
– 2004 to Present

Yale College Class of 1971 35th Reunion Committee, Golf Outing Chair and Panel Discussion Moderator

Yale College Class of 1971, Class Council Member
– 2006 to Present

United States Track and Field Association, 2005 All-American Masters Runner, 1500 meters and 5000 meters (males 55-59)

Running Times Magazine, 2005 Masters Runner of the Year, Honorable Mention (males 55-59)

Ranked #1 Runner in United States in 2005 (males 55-59) based on points by active.com

Ranked #3 Runner in United States in 2006 (males 55-59) based on points by active.com

Road Runners Club of America, Ad Hoc Legal Counsel
– 2006 to Present

Burns Park Run, Committee Chair
– 1997 to Present
Race Co-Chair
– 2002 and 2003

Dexter-Ann Arbor Run, Elite Athlete Committee Chair
– 2007 to present

Burns Park Players, Member
– 1999 to Present

Loyola University of Chicago School of Law, Legal Writing Instructor
– 1988 to 1989

Loyola University of Chicago, Paralegal Instructor for Courses on Employee Benefits and Criminal Law and Procedures
– 1981 to 1990